{"id":208315,"date":"2019-08-10T12:02:15","date_gmt":"2019-08-10T17:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=208315"},"modified":"2019-08-10T11:10:29","modified_gmt":"2019-08-10T16:10:29","slug":"assisted-suicide-australian-victoria-historic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-australian-victoria-historic\/","title":{"rendered":"Sick: First assisted suicide in Australian state of Victoria called ‘an historic moment’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A mother in the Australian state of Victoria has become the first casualty of the state\u2019s legalization of assisted suicide.<\/p>\n

Kerry Robertson, 61, was diagnosed with breast cancer<\/a> in 2010. In March of this year, she decided to stop chemotherapy and other treatments, as the side effects had become too much to bear. According to BBC News<\/a>, her family claimed she had “the empowered death that she wanted.”<\/p>\n

Victoria\u2019s Parliament passed the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act in 2017, and the law went into effect in June of this year. The law requires that a person wishing to legally commit suicide must be terminally ill with no more than 6 months left to live, or 12 months if they have a neurological condition that is degenerative. The patient must make three requests, and have two doctors sign off on the requests.<\/p>\n

READ: \u2018Never morally justified\u2019: New Jersey Bishop condemns state\u2019s Medicaid-covered assisted suicide<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Robertson became the first person to use the law, and her family called it the \u201cperfect\u201d death, according to The Telegraph<\/a>. \u201cMum has always been been brave \u2013 a real \u2018feel the fear then do it anyway\u2019 mentality to life \u2013 it\u2019s the legacy she leaves with us,\u201d Nicole Robertson said in an interview with The Guardian<\/a>. \u201cThat was the greatest part, knowing we did everything we could to make her happy in life and comfortable in death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet as the Catholic bishops in Victoria wrote in a pastoral letter<\/a> in June, the legalization of assisted suicide is not a cause for celebration. \u201cWe object to the unnecessary taking of a human life; we object to the diminishment of the love that can be given and received in the last days of our loved ones; we object to the lack of adequate funding for excellent palliative care; we object to state-sponsored practices that facilitate suicide; and most of all we object to the lazy idea that the best response our community can offer a person in acute suffering is to end their life,” the letter read. The bishops stated that Catholic hospitals and all people of \u201cprincipled opposition to euthanasia\u201d can and must continue to resist the new law as \u201cconscientious objectors.\u201d<\/p>\n